by Nia Arthurs
Chelsea grabbed Jada’s phone from the sofa handle and slapped it into her hand. With eyes narrowed to slits and head tilted, she instructed.
“Call him.”
“But—”
“Do it!”
***
As Adam drove home, he cursed himself for asking Jada to the launching. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about her and, undoubtedly, she had questions about him. Asking her to accompany him on an overnight trip for their first date was a bit much.
He pounded the steering wheel and ran a hand through his short hair, growing more upset by his insensitivity to her grandfather’s situation.
The first night they’d met, Gus mentioned that Jada had accepted the escort gig due to pressing medical bills. Such random drops of information usually popped into his mind when he wished they wouldn’t. When he’d needed it, the fact had slipped his memory.
“Stupid, stupid,” he muttered.
Adam had been grateful for the call from AINSTAIN despite his frustration with the IT guys who had lazily waited until the last minute to contact him about the bug. It was the ticket out that he’d needed and as he drove, he mentally licked his wounds.
He should have expected nothing more from Jada. Sure, they seemed to connect on a deep level and she was… gorgeous, but perhaps her intentions toward him stopped at friendship. At this point in their acquaintance, Adam felt no need to push past it either.
Maybe he should have presented the trip to San Pedro as a friendly gesture rather than a romantic one? No, she’d declined because of her grandfather. Adam couldn’t argue with that.
His phone rang and he absently pressed the button on his Bluetooth headset.
“Hello?”
“Adam?”
The voice on the other end was Jada’s. His eyes dipped from the road and scanned the interior of his car, wondering if she had left an item by mistake.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“So… about that San Pedro trip…”
“I know. It was a bad idea. I’ve already forgotten about it.”
“No,” she said, her voice strong and sure. “I want to go with you.”
“Oh.” Stunned by the answer, it took him a while to respond. “You want to go… as friends?”
“Is that what you want?”
Frazzled, Adam pulled over to the side of the road so that he could focus on the conversation. He had never been skilled at communication, and something about this particular discussion seemed extra puzzling.
“What do you want?”
“Whatever you’re comfortable with,” Jada said.
Adam pressed a hand to his head. Why did women never say what they really meant? If Jada gave the word, he’d jump on a chance to get romantic with her. If she didn’t, he would never put her in an uncomfortable situation.
They were both adults here. He couldn’t ignore the spark of interest that had developed over the course of their relationship, but was it time to express that?
He must have been taking too long to reply for Jada spoke up before he could formulate a polite response.
“Why don’t we go as friends and see how things work out from there?”
“Sounds like a plan to me. I’ll let Brenda send you the details and arrange a schedule. Is that alright?”
“Sure,” she said.
“And, may I ask, what changed your mind?”
Jada hummed. “I trust you.”
He blew out a breath. Adam knew instinctively what an honor it was to hear those words. In his heart, he renewed his commitment to—not only treat Jada the way a woman was to be treated—but to cherish her the way she deserved.
Chapter Sixteen
Jada nervously gripped the handles of her suitcases as she followed Adam through the Belize City terminal to the dock. The sun splayed brilliantly against the green waters in the canal and several colorful ships bobbed their greetings.
“Let me take that for you,” Adam said. Dressed in a striped peach and white vest that exposed his reddening shoulders to the heat, khaki’s and brown boat shoes, Adam was ready for an island jaunt.
“Uh, sure.”
Jada handed him her suitcase and wondered if two more awkward people had ever existed. Adam seemed as uncomfortable with her presence as she was to be here. Once again, the thought that she should have stayed home tiptoed into her mind.
Adam stowed her suitcase inside the boat and turned to help her in, but Jada had already hopped the gap between the pier and the yacht in one leap. At the last moment, she saw Adam retract his hand and groaned.
This was not starting out well.
“Where do you want to sit?” he asked.
“Anywhere.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, clearly flustered by her answer. Jada took pity on him and spoke up, her words overlapping with Adam’s.
“Actually I like sitting outside…”
“I prefer being inside…”
The two stared at each other and then nervously chuckled as the doubts mounted between them. Jada and Adam weren’t the only ones dissatisfied with their indecisiveness. They were blocking the aisle, and disgruntled tourists grumbled behind them.
Jada was about ready to give up on the trip when Adam surprised her. In one smooth motion, he gently grasped her hand and led her to the end of the boat.
“Let’s sit here.”
She stumbled along, staring at the back of his short, sandy blonde hair with awe. The tourists that had been standing behind them breathed in relief.
As Jada settled into her seats she glanced at the man who could switch from nervous and awkward to confident and sure in one swift second. She could have easily done the leading, but something about having Adam take charge felt… nice.
“Have you been to San Pedro before?” he asked, rummaging in his bag.
“No,” Jada said. “I’ve never been.”
“Let’s fit in some sight-seeing before the party,” he said, fitting a hat onto his head. “I mean… if you want.”
“I’d like that.”
The two smiled at each other again. As the boat took off, Jada and Adam shook off their jitters and fell into a comfortable conversation about their favorite summer memories.
While Adam spoke, Jada found that many of his experiences—though placed in exotic lands—were rather cold.
“And that’s when our caretaker, Ms. Nancy, fell right into the spring!” Adam laughed. “We went back to the house and had to write a hundred lines about not pushing people into the water.”
“Did your dad punish you on top of that?” Jada asked. “When I was younger, I stole a mango from Mrs. Lovelie’s tree and she chased me all around the village with a stick. Then when I got home, Papi forced me to return the money I would have paid if I bought the mango.”
Adam smiled, his eyes crinkling at the ends. Jada found that she liked when he smiled like that. It was different from the polite, barely-there grins he offered to other people. With her, the smile lit up his face and made him kind of… cute.
“That’s a funny story,” Adam said. “And no, my father wasn’t around much when I was growing up. He was always working. Well, that and getting married.”
She heard a note of bitterness in his voice and wondered if she should drop the topic. A painful past was something she could relate to, but having lost so much in her life, Jada doubted she could sympathize with Adam completely.
If her father was alive she would treasure him with every beat of her heart, no matter their differences. It was a truth that she could see because of her loss, but it probably wasn’t something he wanted to hear.
“Anyway,” Adam shifted and glanced at her, the smile still crinkling his eyes, “I really do appreciate you coming along. You seem to have a knack for making these fancy dinners more interesting.”
Jada ducked her head. “You’re making fun of me.”
“I would never,” Adam said. “It’s not every day a man gets to break into someone’s house and rescue a damsel in dis
tress.”
“We didn’t break in. He opened the gate for us.”
“I’ve been wondering. What exactly did you say to him? I mean… I got the gist of it since you stripped and all,” his ears tipped red, “you know what? It’s okay. I don’t want to know.”
Jada laughed. “You’re so cute.”
The words slipped out of her mouth naturally, but when they pierced the air, Jada froze. Thankfully, Adam glossed over the sentiment with his usual laid-back humor.
“Cute? I’m not ‘cute’.”
“You’re adorable,” she teased. “See the way your eyes are getting smaller the harder you smile? That’s basically the mark of cuteness.”
“So all I have to do is keep them like this?” He widened his eyes so that the green in his hazel eyes sparkled as much as the Caribbean Sea keeping them afloat.
“Stop,” she laughed and hit his chest. “You look ridiculous.”
Being with him was slowly becoming more and more fun, and she couldn’t imagine being here with anyone else. Adam ran a hand through his hair and she studied him. He looked relaxed and happy, completely at ease in his own skin, but something was different.
“Where are your glasses?”
“I didn’t feel like wearing them today,” he explained. “They’re a bit of a hassle to swim with.”
“You look nice,” she said, staring at his face. “Really.”
He tilted his head and she could sense that he was gearing up to make another joke, but when his gaze met hers, his expression changed. He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“Thank you,” he said quietly.
Jada nodded, refusing to break eye contact. Something between them was shifting and excitement bubbled within her to see the change.
***
Adam sat in the whicker beach chair and watched Jada playing with a little girl near the dancing waves. She’d insisted on coming right out to the beach as soon as they’d checked into the hotel and he’d been agreeable to the idea.
Not long after they staked their claim over the beach chairs, Jada tried to pull him into the waves. As tempting as she was, he had a love-hate relationship with the sea and chose to remain on land.
Jada went in without him and hadn’t returned to his side since. Instead, her time had been claimed by the child in the red bathing suit who tried to build her sand castle with dogged determination.
Each time the little girl made any progress, the waves came and smashed her creation. When Jada joined her, Adam thought that she would tell the little girl to reinforce her fortress walls with stronger material or even to relocate to higher ground.
To his surprise, Jada joined in the frustrating process of creating sandcastles that would be crushed by the Caribbean Sea. They both took such joy in the building and rebuilding that Adam wondered if something was wrong with him.
He would have given up long ago, disappointed by the futility of the sandcastles, by their lack of permanence, by their weakness. He watched Jada delight in them instead, drawing joy from the creation and not taking the destruction seriously.
When she at last meandered back into her beach chair, he turned on his side. Adam couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her brown skin was glowing, her sun-kissed cheeks as welcoming to the sun’s rays as his pale skin was repelling.
Her naturally curly hair was glossy from her dip in the sea and cascaded past her shoulders in a surprising length. He wanted to touch the curls, but figured he should keep his hands to himself.
The modest bathing suit she wore covered her stomach, but left her legs on display. Adam couldn’t help giving her a once-over. He’d seen a few men eyeing her as she played and Adam found himself wishing she wasn’t so gorgeous.
“Adam?”
“Huh?” He blinked and focused, hoping she hadn’t seen him drooling over her like a school boy.
“Could you help me out?” She waved her sunscreen and sent him an inquiring gaze. Adam bit his lip. Jada was innocent, that fact had been established long ago, so she probably wouldn’t understand what touching her would do to him.
“Uh…”
“Just my back,” she said when he hesitated, “I can reach everywhere else.”
Though Adam knew he really shouldn’t… he really wanted to. Snatching the lotion from her hands, he eagerly waited for her to turn on her stomach. Jada did so, exposing the smooth planes of her skin.
His heart jumped to his throat as he slathered the sunscreen on his hands and pressed them against her. The hum of conversation from the people crowding the beach faded from existence. The lash of the waves against the sand and the whip of the breeze pulling at his shirt paused.
They were in their own world. Just him. And her.
Jada moaned. “That feels so good.”
At the sound, Adam knew he had to think of something else. Fast.
“Jada?”
“Hm?”
“Why didn’t you help the girl build a sandcastle that would last?”
She closed her eyes and mumbled. “Sandcastles don’t last.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know the sandcastles are temporary. Eventually, the tide’s going to wash it away.”
“So why bother?”
“Because it’s fun,” she said. “I mean, if you go in thinking the sandcastles are permanent, when they crumble, you’ll be disappointed. But if you know that it’s going to end, that it probably won’t last long, then you enjoy everything about it—as it goes up and as it comes down.”
Her words struck him and his hands stilled on her back. For most of his life, Adam believed the things he held dear were permanent. He worked feverishly at his business, straining to prove he could make it without his father, believing that in the end it would satisfy him.
Now, sitting here beside a woman who took great pleasure from the little things, from the things that he considered frivolous and light, he realized that she had more contentedness than he did.
“But,” Jada half-rose and turned her neck to look him in the eyes, “you know the best part about building sandcastles?”
He set the sunscreen bottle down and scooted nearer to her. “What?”
“When you’re done and the sandcastles are gone… you get to go home.”
His eyes dipped to Jada’s plump lips. In that moment, Adam wanted nothing more than to kiss her, soundly and properly. He leaned over, memorizing every inch of her face. She closed her eyes and pushed her lips out.
Adam stopped mid-way and simply looked at her. He wanted to taste those lips, but now wasn’t the time. The brush of the wind returned, whooshing through the coconut trees. The world returned to life, reminding him that they were not alone.
He pulled back, and Jada peeked one eye open. Adam smiled at the way she scrunched her nose in disappointment and tried to pretend that she hadn’t been shooting for a kiss. Instead of allowing her to retreat, however, he followed her and invaded her personal space once more.
“What is it?” she asked, her gaze darting and landing on anything but him.
“Ready to go home?”
“Home?”
“The hotel room,” he said, leaning back. “I’m hungry.”
“Yeah, sure,” she said. “I could eat.”
Jada flew up and collected her things so quickly she could easily have been a blur. As they ambled back to the hotel, Adam couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. He would kiss her and when he did, it would be worth the wait.
Chapter Seventeen
Jada threw the eyeliner at the vanity mirror and seethed at her reflection. She was an idiot. The greatest idiot in the history of idiots. Making a fool of herself in front of Adam was the most embarrassing moment of her adult life.
She’d been so sure that he was going to kiss her. How could she misinterpret the signs so spectacularly? Jada smacked her forehead. She had been the one insisting that they go on the trip ‘as friends’ and then she basically threw herself at him.
Her fin
gers closed into fists and she tilted her head as she relived the moment on the beach. Adam had acted as if he were going to kiss her. Was he toying with her feelings? Testing her to see if there was chemistry between them?
Obviously there was. Jada didn’t just lean in to kiss anybody.
She ducked her head against the table and flailed her arms. What if she was wrong? What if Adam only saw her as a friend and her developing feelings made it awkward for them? What if he thought she was only interested in him because of his money?
Jada had more questions than answers. She couldn’t very well ask Adam straight out. Instead, she would no longer search for a deeper meaning behind his every gesture. It was too confusing.
She determined to be as cool and detached as she could until Adam made it clear, without a reasonable doubt, that he was into her.
“Jada?” she heard Adam’s deep voice outside her door. “Are you ready?”
“Almost.”
Actually, she was far from ready. Jada had been doing more freaking out over Adam than preparing for the party he’d invited her to. Prancing to the door, she opened it and gasped. Adam looked sharp in a grey suit. Without the glasses, Jada was able to fully appreciate the unique hue of his eyes.
“Hey,” she said, leaning her head against the door.
“Hi,” he replied, shoving his hands into his pockets. Whether the move was intentional or not, Jada couldn’t get over how suave Adam looked right now.
“I’m not ready. I just… I didn’t want you waiting outside for half an hour.”
“That’s okay,” Adam said. “I can wait in the lobby—”
“Why don’t you wait in here?” she blurted. Adam’s eyes widened and Jada winced. Where did all her resolve to be cool and detached go?
“Yeah, sure,” Adam said.
She stepped aside so he could enter and then she returned to her place in front of the mirror. Jada clutched her eyeliner and found that her hand was shaking. It wasn’t from fear. She did trust Adam… perhaps it would be more accurate to say she was very aware of him.
As he walked to her bed, he seemed to fill up the room. When he sat down, the scent of his cologne wafted over her and she closed her eyes to inhale deeply. Yesterday, Jada wasn’t sure how she felt about Adam. Tonight, she was feeling too many things.
